More Ass-Hattery

Hot on the heels of this story about a bunch of foreigners being busted for cannabis, comes the police reaction which can be summed up in this statement by Officer Kim Ki Young:

[the] immigration authorities need to intensify visa screening procedures in order to reduce the number of drug-using foreign teachers. 

WTF!? 

Is Officer Kim not aware of the stringent tests one must already go through in order to get an E2 visa? Including a health check, HIV check and a TBPE test that checks for opiate use. 

As the Korea Times rightly points out Immigration discontinued the cannabinoid test for E2 visa applicants for lack of manpower / facilities to carry out the test:

The Korea Immigration Service (KIS) initially planned to conduct ``cannabinoids" tests on E-2 visa applicants, but the idea was scrapped in March last year due to a lack of equipped hospitals and the fact smoking marijuana is not illegal in some countries. 

Thus one could presumably smoke a bit of the Gangja while holidaying in Amsterdam (where de 'erb be legal man) and not be adversely affected in obtaining an E2 after your holiday.

Fair enough in my book and wholly unrelated to 6 ass-hats in Seoul who decided to bucky-bong a couple of cones of Hash. However the Police think that further cannabis offences would e mitigated by reinstating a cannabinoid test:

But police believe immigration authorities need to conduct cannabinoids tests in order to reduce drug convictions among foreign teachers. 

We're going round in circles here quote: but the idea was scrapped in March last year due to a lack of equipped hospitals and the fact smoking marijuana is not illegal in some countries.  

Were immigration to put the burden on E2 applicants in their home countries I think you would have a big problem too, in that I'm pretty sure the ability to do the test (in New Zealand at any rate) is just as few and far between as it is in Korea, as well as being prohibitively expensive for an individual to undertake.

The rest of the article goes on about the "Equal Checks for All" campaign run by ATEK which is of limited relevance to the issue at hand, even more so now that ATEK is facing renewed criticism over plagiarism allegations that were covered in a Press release by the organisation- See Rob's post at Hub of Sparkle here (and in the comments) and in this thread (which I can't seem to open from work) over at Dave's.

Overall I think Korea and it's police force will have to except that with a growing foreign population there is bound to be an increase in drug related Ass-Hattery and other forms of Crime. I wish the Police all the best in cracking down on it but caution them (and immigration) against further knee-jerk reactions, the likes of which brought about this new regime of health and drug tests in the first place.